94(0 



MORTUARY CUSTOMS 



[b. a. e. 



was spread on which was built a fire, 

 forming an earthen shield over the corpse 

 before additional earth was added. Cav- 

 erns, fissures in rocks, rock shelters, etc., 

 were frequently used as depositories for 

 the dead. According to Yarrow, a cave 

 near the House mts., Utah, in which the 

 Gosiute Indians were in the habit of de- 

 positing their dead, was quite filled with 

 human remains in 1872. 



Embalmment and mummification were 

 practised to a limited extent; the former 

 chiefly in Virginia, the Carolinas, and 



MUMMY FROM AN ALASKAN CAVE 



(dall) 



Florida, and the latter in Alaska. Of the 

 modes of disposing of the dead, included 

 by Yarrow under "aerial sepulture," the 

 following are exam])les: Burial in lodges, 

 observed among t h e 

 Sioux; these appear to 

 have been exceptional 

 and were merely an 

 abandonment of t li e 

 dead during an epi- 

 demic; a few cases of 

 burial in lodges, how- 

 ever, have been ob- 

 served in Alabama. 

 Burial beneath the 

 floor of the house and then at once 

 burning the house were practised to some 

 extent in e. Arkansas. vScaffold and 

 tree burial was practised in Wiscon- 

 sin, INIinnesota, the Dakotas, INIontana, 



URN Burial Alabama moun 

 1-22. ( Moore) 



DAKOTA SCAFFOLD BURIAL. (yarrow) 



etc., by the Chippewa, Sioux, Siksika, 

 Mandan, Grosventres, Arapaho, and other 

 Indians. The burial mounds of Wiscon- 

 sin indicate this mode of disposing of the 

 dead in former times, as the skeletons 

 were buried after the removal of the 

 flesh, and the bones frequently indicate 

 long exposure to the air. The Eskimo of 



the w. coast of Alaska sometimes placed 

 tlie dea<l on a platform 2 or 3 ft above 

 ground and built over it a double roofing, 

 or tent, of driftwood. It was also the 

 custom among the Indians of the Lake 



DAKOTA TREE BURIAL. (yarrow) 



region to have at certain periods what 

 may be termed communal burials, in 

 which the bodies or skeletons of a dis- 

 trict were removed from their temporary 



DAKOTA SCAFFOLD BURIAL, 



burial places and deposited with much 

 ceremony in a single large pit (see Bre- 

 beuf in Jes. Eel. for 1636, 128-139, 1858). 

 On the N. W. coast, n. of Columljiar., the 

 dead were usually placed in little cabin- 



